


If I Must

by Ginriku



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Complete, End of Ninja, Oneshot, Reincarnation, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 02:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8514991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ginriku/pseuds/Ginriku
Summary: Naruto has seen more than his fair share. Chakra is draining from the land and Nature has asked his assistance. They will forget it eventually, this age of ninja. But, perhaps, one day they will know again.





	

Many years passed since the name Naruto Uzumaki had danced across anyone lips. The ones he had grown up with had long since died, and their children, and their children’s children. Yet he still remains. When his first child died of old age he had decided to wander. Pulled by feeling that told him there was more to know. Saw every part of the world as he hadn’t in his youth or when he had been Hokage. He had wandered for almost a hundred years before he came back this place. Finally having found what he had been looking for.

He had wept. He had shouted in anger, in fear, in pain. But now he understood and with that understanding he had created a plan.

Thinking and planning and calculating for what felt like an eternity.   

But most of all; he dreams.

Dreams of a time when the power he wields becomes a legend no one believes anymore. A time when such a thing is so dissociated from reality that its little more than an old wives tale, whispered to children in the night. Eventually that chakra that has gripped this land for so long would slip and people would begin to forget.

Forget the adventure, the hope, the heroes and the villains, forget the pain and fear and suffering too. Forget about the time when ninjas were real and watched form the shadows, manipulating this world with the belief that they were needed.

How long would it take? A hundred years? Two? When the last ninja performed the last jutsu it was only a matter of time. Even now he could feel the chakra seep from his bones, running back into the world from which it was borrowed. Eventually no one would be able to feel it and the myth would be closed.

What would that new world look like? A world full of people ignorant of the power that surrounds them still, but unable to feel or tap into it. Full of disbelief at the thought of gods and monsters that had once roamed this land.

The traces would still be here, for a while at least. Long forgotten temples and the wall writings of their ancestors would speak of this time. Would they think that they were just being fanciful? The dreams and imaginations in their heads full to the brim? Would anyone look deeper and realise that this wasn’t simply an act in a play but real history that they had had to overcome?

Would they be happier? Settled in their belief that all of life was laid out before them like concrete, all shadows having been illuminated and unaware of what exactly had been covered. For concrete, while looking and feeling like stone, was a manmade construct wrought by their own ingenuity. How long would it take for the cracks to appear?

How long before someone took it just a step to far? While people can forget the truth, it doesn’t mean that it ceases to exist. And he hopes it will be known again and the people will wield chakra once again in lifetimes so far removed from his own that there was little point in him thinking of it now.

With a belabored sigh, the old man stood with aching bones from atop the crumbling visage of his own father. He wonders what name he will have next time, when chakra is unlocked once again.

_‘You’re sure about this?’_

The old beast that had resided in him all his days shifted.

“They’ll figure it out one day, Kurama. Nothing stays hidden forever. But they deserve to know what real peace feels like first.”

_‘They’ll still find ways to kill each other without it you know.’_

“Yes… but it’ll be harder. They’ll have to be smarter about it. But with intelligence comes understanding, and with understanding comes compassion. Have a little faith, old friend.”

_‘Only for you, Naruto.’_

The old man doesn’t reply. He gazes at his last sunset in this body, wondering if he will ever see another. Who knows, maybe his is wrong, the old fool that he is.

He goes through a long sequence of hands signs; this moment has been decades in the making and he has not told a soul of his plans. Finally, it is at an end and he places his old knobby hands into the dirt noting, for the last time, the grit and richness of the soil. A vast seal network unlike any that had been seen before stretches from his palms to encircle the globe. Going under seas and over mountain, through desert and forest to touch each part of this world.

These lines are only for him, no one else notices that the man had done anything at all. They would notice eventually, as their chakra seeps away from them faster and faster to reside once again in the heart of the earth. It would have taken more than a thousand years for anyone to notice the drain that he has felt as the stars sucked away their life force. Nature herself cried in his ear about the loss and begged for his help. This way she wouldn’t die and the planet could be born again; renewed after her children had forgotten her presence for a while. Now peace could come and this power could be appreciated again in that far-off eon. Hope for that time filled him.

Kurama had already slipped out of the seal and was sleeping far below has he pours the last traces of his own chakra into the seal. His last wish is that the sky is the same colour blue and that he sees a familiar face should he walk the world again.

With a hushed sigh, the last great shinobi left the world.

Two thousand years later a sharp cry pierced the night as a blond haired blue eyed baby greeted the world.

A tired set of new parents cried as they cradled their first born.

“What’s his name?”

“Naruto.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I have no idea where this came from, maybe it was the utter desolation I felt from the US Election last night. In either case I won't be continuing and if anyone gets an idea go ahead and run with it. You have my blessing.


End file.
